


charm and a prayer will get you to canada

by sapphfics



Series: a limping & manipulated story [1]
Category: The Handmaid's Tale (TV)
Genre: F/F, Family Reunions, full disclosure guys june named her nicole for serena and it makes me wanna cry, if emily and nicole don’t make it to canda i s2g, i’m sorry this is so short and bad its three in the morning aaaaa, we don’t know emily’s married name so i can’t tag it rip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 06:10:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15357972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphfics/pseuds/sapphfics
Summary: Sylvia runs to her and wraps her into an embrace so tight that it might crush Emily’s chest, just as they used to before Gilead became a reality. Emily lets out a shaky breath. They are still loud with their affection, and she is still dancing on the edge of knife, waiting to die at any moment.Or: Emily and her family reunite at long last.





	charm and a prayer will get you to canada

It’s a week before they get to Canada, and they arrive on a Sunday morning, so most are at Church. They get through Canada’s immigration system relatively quickly and soon enough Emily has three possessions to her name: two-hundred dollars, a cell phone, and -

“Emily!”

The sound of her name, her _real_ name, spoken aloud for the first time in three years makes Emily want to cry. Her back hurts. She’d sat in the back of freezing trucks for three days and hasn’t slept a wink. 

She turns, slowly, even though she’d recognise her wife anywhere.

“Sylvia?”

Sylvia runs to her and wraps her into an embrace so tight that it might crush Emily’s chest, just as they used to before Gilead became a reality. Emily lets out a shaky breath. They are still loud with their affection, and she is still dancing on the edge of knife, waiting to die at any moment.

“I...you’re really here, aren’t you? I’m not dreaming?”

Emily can only bring herself to nod, as though Aunt Lydia really did cut out her tongue.

After a time that Emily can’t remember, Sylvia lets go. She can’t help but think that Sylvia looks just as she did in the photo on Emily’s old phone.“I have so much to tell you, so much I never thought I’d get the chance too. Not until...I never...I need you to know that I didn’t date someone else. Please don’t be mad. I…I thought you’d want me to be happy and I didn’t know if you were even alive but...we’re still married, no matter what.”

Oliver tugs at Sylvia’s arm. He has glasses now, ones without frames, and his eyes are wide. He looks excited, but mostly confused, and Emily crouches down to talk to him.

“Oliver, do you...do you remember me? Really remember me, not just from photos.”

Oliver blinks up at her and then sadly shakes his head, looking as if he may cry. There’s a sentence you repeat to yourself, as a Handmaid. Let your children forget you, they will never see you again. Emily had hoped her family had moved on without her. It was her way of staying sane.

“Oliver, I was...I am your other mom. The last time I saw you, you were three. I tried to get away so many times, I didn’t...I didn’t try hard enough and I’m so sorr-“

Oliver doesn’t hug her like Sylvia did, but he does hold out his hand to hers.“You didn’t do anything wrong. They’re horrible, those people. I hate them more than anyone. They teach us about them in school sometimes. I hope they go to prison forever.”

Oliver wants to become a lawyer for those affected by Gilead, because he knows that it will all fall down soon enough. Emily introduces them to Nicole. She hadn’t let her go since June left.

Nicole didn’t cry the entire escape. Her eyes are taking in everything around her. “Sylvia, Oliver, meet baby Nicole. Her Mommy is a dear friend of mine, she helped me so much, and I promised I’d look after her baby, until she can get out. Nicole has a big sister in Gilead, see, and my friend is going to go and get her.” Emily hopes that if she says June will escape enough times it will eventually become reality.

Oliver gives her a little wave, touches her face, gently. “She’s...she’s so soft and so little. How did you...wait, did I used to look like that?”

Emily laughs, truly laughs, for the third time in three years. “Yeah, you did. You were early, too, just like Nicole. And one day Nicole will be big and strong, like you. I’m so proud of you.”

Oliver grins. “I always wanted a sister. This is the best birthday ever!”

Sylvia wraps an arm around Emily’s waist, chatting about Oliver’s birthday party, all his friends, the family Sylvia has left because Emily’s abandoned her long ago. Emily balls her left hand into a fist, the hand her wedding ring should have been on. Emily resolves to tell her everything that has happened to her since they were separated that night, once the children have gone to bed. In hushed whispers, of course, because the Red Centre taught her the value of paranoia even without the use of cattle prods.

Sylvia whispers, right in her ear. Emily doesn’t like to imagine what would have happened to her family if they’d have all been stuck in Gilead, but Sylvia would’ve done well in MayDay, if she’d joined it. “Reporters here are publishing the stories of Handmaid’s who’ve made it out so the rest of the world can see what’s going on. Anonymously, of course. If you wanted, you could tell them. They believe us. Someone leaked a lot of letters from Handmaid’s, and Fred Waterford got thrown out of Canada.”

Emily feels sick at the prospect, if she’s honest, so she puts her head on Sylvia's shoulder. “Maybe tomorrow. Right now, I wanna go home. Do you mind driving?”

Sylvia nods. But first, they walk to a store to buy Nicole a car seat. Nicole won’t stop looking at Oliver, like she’s studying him, maybe wondering where her own mother is. Oliver pulls a face and Nicole giggles, soft. 

Emily finds out that the house Sylvia and Oliver have lived in for the past three years is a stone's throw away from the memorial of those lost to Gilead.

“Mommy wanted us to be close to you, even if it was just a photo.” Oliver explains. “Maybe there’s a picture of Nicole’s Mommy at the mem-memorial? I wanna show her, when she’s older, so she doesn’t forget her. But only if she wants to, of course.”

Emily is staring out of the window, her long dark hair flowing down her back. She wants to cut it. She wants to know if Aunt Lydia ia dead. But she knows this: she will never wear that red dress again. Even if Gilead takes Canada, she won’t do it. She will never go back.

Eventually, she sleeps.

Finally, she does not dream. 

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve started a new series which will be me writing fics about scenes I’d like to see in season three. I’m hoping to start a similar series, inspired by “what if” moments in the show - such as ‘What if Serena had accepted the offer to go to Hawai?’ If you have any requests, contact me on [tumblr](https://vyod.tumblr.com/). 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed, please leave a comment! <3


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